


Take the World Together

by Rubynye



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-11
Updated: 2010-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 03:58:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David tells Colby about the past; Colby tells David about the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take the World Together

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Spoilers through _Trust Metric_, the S4 opener.
> 
> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/choc_fic/profile)[**choc_fic**](http://community.livejournal.com/choc_fic/).

Title: Take the World Together  
Rating: PG-13  
Pairing: David Sinclair / Colby Granger

 

"And, man, she had these legs..." David trails off as Colby, snickering appreciatively, settles a bit more solidly against his side. Amy had been pretty, Amy had been smart and ambitious and hot, but right now David's attention is drawn to the man slouching warmly on his couch, smiling warmly and a little drunkenly at him. His partner, his friend. His...

He's had a few beers himself, David thinks, looking away from the flushed heat over Colby's cheekbones, up at his shadowed ceiling and back into his memories. "But there was more to Amy than her legs. She always talked about her ideas for 'social change', about the groups she wanted to create." Now David pictures her again, hands moving expressively, blonde hair bouncing as she talked, lips shiny pink when she smiled. "She tried to talk me out of applying to the FBI, you know. Called them -- us -- crypto-fascists." Colby laughs at that, his lower lip damp and shiny in the low light, and David grins at the way the beer bottle tilts in his hand. "Granger, if you spill on my couch--"

Colby shrugs, his shoulder pushing against David's as he levers himself up out of the couch to thunk the bottle down on the table, and David doesn't let himself tip over into the space left empty, as Colby rests his elbow on his knee and twists around to look back. "So what happened, then? Was it politics? Your fascist tendencies?"

David laughs. "Nah, not that. Fighting over them was too much fun." Then he realizes what story he's about to tell, and to Colby; the thought is coldly sobering, but he's already in. "No, what happened was... one day we were downtown, just walking down the street holding hands, two kids in love." Colby stops smiling, gone quiet as he watches David's face. "This woman walked up to us. Only a couple years older than we were, but she was wearing a business suit. She was looking at me so intently I was trying to place her as we approached, to figure out if I knew her from back in the Bronx or if I'd met her in college."

He knows it's at least partially the beer, but David remembers it now like it was yesterday, the way the woman's words had felt like a kick to the chest, the way Amy's fingers had tightened around his, then loosened, then let go. Colby leans his head on his hand, his eyes widening a little as David takes a deep breath and keeps going. "She said, 'This is half our problem, right here,' and began yelling at us, as if it were her business, that White women were stealing Black men and alienating us from our community. She started yelling that shit in the middle of the street. It was..." David shakes his head and doesn't finish the sentence.

"She was Black?" asks Colby, looking faintly shocked.

David nods. "She was. Amy just stared at her, we both did for too long until I finally said, 'excuse us' and pulled her away down the street. But after that, our day was pretty much wrecked, and we decided we just wanted to get back to campus. When I called Amy the next day she was full of excuses. You know how it is, but I didn't, back then. I kept calling for... anyway. I figured it out eventually, and gave up calling. Gave up on Amy."

Colby nods slowly. "She was the last one, huh?"

Alcohol is a depressant, and David should know better than to tell sad stories with it in his bloodstream. He folds his arms and gives Colby the sort of glare that usually makes him smile. "Man, what do you take me for? Of course she's not the last woman I've dated."

Colby isn't grinning, though. He looks straight at David and says, "the last White woman, though. Am I right?"

"I'm not holding a grudge, if that's what you're worried about." Although Colby is right, at least about women. There was Dov, but Tel Aviv was different than New York, or LA. Not better, of course not, but different.

Now Colby's smirk unfurls lazily, slowly enough to make David's skin prickle with heat. "I'm not worried about that," he says, dropping down beside David again. "But I just..." He pauses, close enough for David to feel the warmth off his skin. "I would never let some angry bitch scare me off you."

David has to laugh at Colby's earnestness. "Of course you wouldn't. Also, you're drunk."

"Nah," Colby disagrees mildly. "I wouldn't, David. I wouldn't let anything get between you and me, not ever, not anymore." He looks so serious, and his hand is warm and damp on David's arm. "Not anymore," he echoes, shaking his head, as the last six months descend around them.

David doesn't want those months, their memories, the five weeks he spent believing Colby was a traitor, the times he tore his apartment apart searching for bugs, the times he's wondered if he knew Colby at all. He pushes gently at Colby's shoulder to push those thoughts away. "Come on, Granger, don't get all mushy on me."

"Hey, beer is full of truth," Colby misquotes, and his grin is bright, the highlights in his eyes like twin sparks. "And I really wouldn't. David, I..." His grip tightens on David's shoulder, warmth and pressure through the sleeve, and it would be a struggle to push him away even if David wanted to. "I thought about my life on that ship," Colby murmurs, and David has to hear it. "I thought about, what if I die with everyone thinking I'm a traitor? What if I died with you thinking that about me?"

David remembers thinking it. He remembers seeing Colby slumped in that chair, not breathing, remembers pumping his chest and shouting to him to wake up, to hear him. His hand settles over Colby's heart, feeling its beat, and Colby nods solemnly, and they really have had a lot of beer. "But you didn't," David finally says.

Colby leans in, and David remembers other nights like this, beer-laced kisses and a strong arm across his waist as he slept. He remembers wondering if Colby had merely seduced him to gain access to his apartment, if the real Colby even kissed like that, touched like that, smiled like that. He remembers swearing to himself it was over, saying to himself tonight that he was going to get to know his partner better, not take him to bed. But here they are, hands on each other, noses nearly touching. "I didn't," Colby agrees, and shuts his eyes on a sharp headshake. "Two years of bullshit, of lying to everyone." He smells a little like beer, and mostly like a warm solid guy. Like he always did, and David doesn't know how his hand got on Colby's face, but though his cheek is hot under David's palm he looks up clear-eyed and keeps on going, earnest and steady and everything David hasn't let himself hope to hear. "Dwayne said it was just the two of us together, and all I could think as I agreed with him was that it should've been you and me."

"Colby." David has to close his eyes against the way Colby's shine, and when he does the image in his mind makes him chuckle. "So you'd walk down the street holding my hand, no matter what anyone said."

Colby laughs, warm on David's face. "On our day off, sure."

David opens his eyes again, and Colby's smile is exactly the same as ever, just as warm and just as honest. "That's okay. I don't think we need to."

Colby grins, and pulls David forward, and David smiles until their lips meet.

 

[Prompt: _Numb3rs, Het or Slash-David/OC, Mixed-race pairings: David goes out with a white woman/guy and is surprised by the flack he gets from it, his team and friends rally around him - It's not about color, it's about love_. I feel a little bad I collapsed that team-wide prompt into this, but one must follow the plotbunny where it leads.]


End file.
